Blue Owl sells half its SpaceX stake at $1.25 trillion valuation for 10x return, co-CEO says

Blue Owl is cashing in on one of its most lucrative bets. The alternative asset manager has sold roughly half of its stake in SpaceX at a $1.25 trillion valuation, turning an early investment into a 10x return. The update came from co-CEO Marc Lipschultz during a call with analysts on Thursday.

“Specifically at SpaceX… we made about 10 times our money on that investment,” Lipschultz said. “We’ve sold about half of it at a $1.25 trillion valuation, still holding about half of it,” according to a Reuters report.

The partial exit locks in significant gains and still leaves Blue Owl with meaningful exposure to one of the most closely watched private companies in the world. Founded by Elon Musk, SpaceX has grown from a high-risk launch startup into a dominant force in commercial space, satellite internet, and government contracts.

Now the company is edging closer to a public debut. SpaceX is expected to go public later this year at a potential valuation of around $1.75 trillion, with plans to raise roughly $75 billion. If that happens, it would mark the largest IPO ever and could push Musk into uncharted territory as the first trillionaire.

Blue Owl’s position dates back to its early role as a lender to SpaceX before it moved into equity. The firm acquired shares across two classes in 2021, according to a securities filing. That timing put it in a position to benefit from the company’s sharp rise in valuation as demand for launch services and satellite connectivity surged.

The sale lands at a moment when capital is rotating across the AI and infrastructure stack. Blue Owl, which has built a large business financing data centers, had been in discussions to support a planned $10 billion facility in Michigan tied to Oracle and OpenAI workloads. That project, part of the high-profile Stargate initiative, aimed to expand U.S. AI capacity. The firm later stepped away from those talks.

That shift offers a glimpse into how capital is being redeployed. Even as firms chase opportunities tied to AI infrastructure, legacy bets like SpaceX are delivering outsized returns. For Blue Owl, trimming its position now secures profits without walking away from further upside if SpaceX pushes ahead with its IPO ambitions.

The message is simple: early conviction still pays off, and timing the exit can matter just as much as the entry.